Finding reading incentives for high school students isn't easy. While they like the bookmarks, these are not an incentive to read. To encourage our students, we plan to have several programs.
We had success with the Million Word Challenge, and plan to use this again. Students will be encouraged to read a million words or more to win prizes. We'll have drawings for various prizes, such as gift cards, for the students. We will promote this throughout the year with posters, announcements, commercials featuring the drama students and the broadcast journalism classes, and in the school newspaper. Students will be recognized during the year and at the end of the year awards ceremony.
We will also have book giveaways. Periodically, we receive donated books and will randomly give them to students. It's exciting when we receive the books, and the looks on the student's faces when they come in and we tell them...FREE BOOK DAY!
I like your plan for drawings and gift cards as rewards. How will you finance the gift cards?
ReplyDeleteYou said a mouthful when you said it is difficult to provide incentives for high school students. I have a teenaged daughter and all she cares about is "cute boys". The only books she will take the time to read are the series of "urban" relationship books by Wahida Clark. I'm not a fan of the "thug" books, but at least she is reading. :-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your program. I do believe giving away prizes will help.
I'm always looking for more ideas - knowing the middle school age is when books aren't cool - so glad to hear of some of your methods!
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea to allow students to choose from donated books on a first come first serve basis. It allows students freedom to choose.
ReplyDeleteKimball HS Library:
ReplyDeleteI'm finding it hard to believe you aren't "tooting" your horn louder about the great job you all have done with the Million Word Challenge! The amount of participation you have is always impressive, and I'm sure there are students who will be willing to sing praises; as a matter of fact, a Molina student came to summer school at KHS last summer and did not hesitate to tell me what a great library you all have. You have always been so wonderfully patient, polite and friendly any time I haved called with a question, and I appreciate that as well. Toot-toot, you all are great!
Free Book Day is a great idea. At the elementary level we have RIF and I'm glad to hear that you are thinking of ways to get hs students free books too. I have a stack of paperbacks I'll give you for the next Free Book Day.
ReplyDeleteKaren, I totally agree with you. It is hard coming up with an incentive to entice high school students to read more. Ms. Peterson discussed implementing the "Million Word Challenge" during one of the previous Summit sessions. This was a great idea that we implemented. What we discovered was that we have 20-30 students who really enjoy reading. I will attempt to implement it again this year,but will also partner with my ESL teacher to get our ESL students to read more.
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